Podcast Week: Agriminders, The Chaser, Sky News, No Chill & more

Agriminders with Chris Russell

Trying to help listeners understand the importance of agriculture by speaking with the smartest minds is key to this new PodcastOne series hosted by Chris Russell. “The discussions are to help ensure that our agricultural future is secure for the generations to come,” Russell told Mediaweek.

PodcastOne secured sponsorship for the Agriminders series from Cub Cadet mowers with 10 episodes all dropping last week.

Russell has been a longtime agricultural scientist and was the agricultural judge on ABC TV’s New Inventors for seven years. He’s also been a agricultural contributor to Newstalk ZB in New Zealand for around 20 years.

Russell’s agent contacted PodcastOne with the idea of producing a podcast that could sit well with both regional and metro listeners and subsequently negotiated a deal.

At the time Russell wasn’t even sure what a podcast was!

“Australia is the second-most urbanised country in the world after Singapore,” Russell explained. “The disconnect between the issues that affect the agricultural future and the city is massive. The closest a lot of people get to food sources is supermarket shelves. I have tried to always bring that disconnect closer together whether it be on television or when I’m speaking. Now via the podcast series.

“It is so important that people understand how world food security and agricultural issues do affect people who live in big cities like Sydney and Melbourne. What I have done is talk to the custodians in agriculture in Australia and get a simple explanation with no jargon that will help people in cities as well as elsewhere understand what the issues are.

“Water is a classic because it is so important. But ask the average person about the Murray-Darling Basin Authority and they wouldn’t know what you are talking about. I spoke to the chairman who explains what they they are doing and why.”

Russell said another important topic in agriculture is climate change. “Climate change overrides a lot of what we are talking about in this series. However, we haven’t got into the debate of whether the climate is changing because of human intervention or whether it is the sun or whatever. We are just accepting the climate has changed and that water is getting scarcer. We use a quote from Megan Clark, the former head of the CSIRO, who said in the next 50 years there is going to be more food eaten than in the preceding whole history of humanity. Currently we only know how to produce 30% of that. Part of the problem is climate change.”

No Chill from PEDESTRIAN.TV

PEDESTRIAN.TV this week launched No Chill, a new six-part podcast series that focuses on the modern-day correlations between mental health and social media usage with the help of Instagram personalities, researchers, lawyers and psychologists.

The series is co-hosted by comedian and PEDESTRIAN.TV presenter, Lucinda Price, and writer and editor Madison Griffiths.

Price can also be heard hosting the original podcast Waiting For A D8. She is a former digital producer SCA and also co-hosted The Squad, a late-night show on Fox FM, in early 2017.

No Chill episodes drop weekly on iTunes and Spotify on Tuesdays. For real-time episode updates, follow No Chill on Twitter, @NoChillPod.

The Chaser’s new podcast about weird old stuff

It’s the only show guaranteed to teach you things about stuff you really don’t need to know. That’s the promise from The Chaser’s Andrew Hansen when he introduces its new podcast series The Cat’s Pyjamas.

The first episode tells the story of how the CIA tried to assassinate Cuba’s president Fidel Castro many, many times and never succeeded. It’s James Bond meets Inspector Clouseau.

There can only be one thing better than Triple M’s Radio Chaser program, and that is this new podcast series from PodcastOne. Joining Hansen on the all-star first episode are Dom Knight, Chris Taylor and Charles Firth.

Sky News expanding audio offering

Following successful Australian partnerships with Google and Amazon across their Smart Home devices, the launch of a digital audio platform Sky News Radio, and consistent month-on-month growth of podcast streams, Sky News is recruiting for the new role of audio producer to spearhead audio strategy and create bespoke audio-first content for the network.

Sky News reported this week its podcasts have delivered over 48% year-on-year growth in streams.

To further improve the Sky News offering across existing and emerging audio platforms, Sky News has appointed Nova Entertainment and Acast as sales and technology partners. Nova will represent Sky News audio content in the Australian marketplace from October.

The most popular Sky News Australia podcasts are The BoltReport, Jones & Co, Paul Murray Live and Credlin.

Mamamia podcasts on tour

This past week saw the first Mamamia Talks Beauty at Myer live podcast events. Hosts Leigh Campbell and Rachel Corbett took their unique take on beauty and skincare to Myer stores in Sydney and Melbourne and they will be at Myer Adelaide on Friday September 21 from 6:45pm.

Belinda Cook

Meanwhile, Mamamia has announced the appointment of Belinda Cook as head of audio sales.

Mamamia claims global leadership in podcasting and has created a new role to assist clients to communicate with the big Mamamia podcast audiences.

Mia Freedman, chief creative officer, said: “Mamamia’s podcast network is now the largest women’s podcast network in the world. Our 21 shows are consistently among the top-rating shows in the iTunes charts each week and with 51m downloads it’s clear that our ‘friends in your ears’ positioning is really resonating with women.”

Belinda Cook said: “Podcasting is a huge growth area for the market and for our business. Every client needs a podcast strategy if they want to engage women and Mamamia is the undisputed leader in the category.”